Heart Hacker
by LillieGhoul
Summary: Orimoto Izumi, or Zoë, is the kind of girl everybody wants to be. Her life is perfect. Every boy wants her. One boy, however, wants her simply too much. Now, Zoe has to struggle as ghosts of her past return to haunt her and make her life miserable, and it wouldn't have been that hard if Zoe doesn't WANT them to be gone.
1. Kidnapped

**Prologue:  
**

* * *

Orimoto Izumi, or just Zoë as everyone called her, led an almost perfect life. She was loved by everyone at school and her parents obliged in anything she asked them for. She was a good student and a gifted cook; she could make any recipe you gave her, and adding her own special touches made it even better, kicking it up several notches.

She had made many new friends after her visit to the Digital World, but her best friends were Fujimoto Myakka and Ghala Lili, or just Mia and Li as everyone called them. Zoë had swooped down from her majestic pedestal and for some reason unknown to everyone other than Mia and Li themselves had taken them under her wing and had made them both exceedingly popular, just because they hung out with the great Zoë.

They attended St. Rita's Convent together, an all-girls school filled with girls bursting with hormonal imbalances locked up in a cage unable to exercise them on the opposite gender. That was soon about to change, however, as university was just around the corner.

Zoë was approached by many male and female admirers alike, but she turned them all down. No one knew what she was really after or what it was exactly that she was looking for.

One evening, as she sat on her laptop typing an essay, she had a sudden call on her cell phone. Thinking it was probably Mia calling to brag about the wonderful essay she had written, she picked it up with her usual purr of, "Helloooo?"

There was some static and then a voice came on the line.

"Orimoto Izumi?" the voice said.

Izumi sat up a little straighter, eyebrows pulling together.

"Yes, who is this?"

There was some more static and buzz before the line dropped. Izumi scoffed. Some people should really afford a better connection. She checked to see if it was a number she recognised, but surprisingly, there was no number. Izumi shrugged, dismissing the episode and went back to her essay. Whoever it was will probably call again or meet her at school tomorrow. It was no doubt another one of her stalkers. She had been unable to tell if the voice was of a male or a female.

The next day at school, Zoë was hanging out with Mia and Li telling them about the weird feeling she seemed to be always having now of being followed for the last couple of days when the topic came to their previous adventures they had shared together. Perhaps it was a premonition.

"You know, I miss the others," Li says. By the way she said "others", it was clear to Zoë and Mia who she was talking about.

Li was the exact opposite of Zoë. Where Zoë was all ladylike, Li insisted on acting like a slobbering tomboy/gothic chick. The sisters and teachers in their school all failingly tried to turn her into a proper lady. Previously, Li had preferred to hang out alone because she had felt no one was worth her time, or that they could never begin to understand her. She was hungry for power and appreciation for what she did as she next to never received it. This was what had triggered her to be the future evil Warrior, Mercuremon of Steel. She was wise in many terms and held knowledge, but sure didn't act that way coz her grades were a mere average. She read lots of fiction novels and preferred to live in her own fantasy world where everything went her way.

Mia nods. "I know. I wish we could meet up with them again."

Mia was somewhere between Li and Zoë. She was a lady with wild interests. She was a diplomat sort of person with wild mood swings. When she wanted to act wild she hung out with Li, and when she wanted to talk about clothes and boys, she hung out more with Zoë. When they got in trouble of some kind she bailed out fast. Mia was the same girl Izumi had helped back in their camping trip when she had sprained her foot and which had then kept her from matching the other's pace. She had then later invited Zoë to join her group, except none of them had wanted her to sit with them. And Mia had ended up going along with them. And then Zoë had called her a liar to begin with. This was what had transpired her to be the future evil Warrior Ranamon of Water, and her rivalry with Zoë. The truth was Mia _was _a liar for her own selfish interests sometimes.

Zoë shakes her head at both of them. "We promised to stay in touch, but we each got busy with our own lives and showed our true colours. Thank God at least all the girls are together."

"I don't even know that much about the others either," Li said. Mia and Zoë looked at her like she was joking. It was seldom that Li didn't "know" something she could get her talons on.

"Ok, I at least know from that all Kōji that his _brother _and the guys except him go to Jiyuugaoka High," Li admitted.

"You still talk to him?" Zoë asks, shocked, determined to hide both her jealousy and amusement. She used to like Kōji a little.

"Even if I do or don't, so?"

"Well," Mia says gently. "For one thing, you know it's unethical."

"Ok look, whatever. I don't want to start another debate on it," Li says, determined not to get them speaking of the past and the taboo. "So have you heard about your application yet Zoë?"

Zoë tries not to let her disappointment be too obvious. "No not yet. But I know I'll be hearing from them soon. Everyone agrees I am the best cook here and my credentials were totally off the charts."

"You really think you'll win that internship in Hong Kong Leading Chefs?"

"She does stand a good chance," Li says.

"Well, they haveto accept me, they just _have _to."

"But what about university?" Mia asks. They were only a week from starting.

"Look, you know as well as me that I'm not interested in making a career out of solving equations or proving theorems. Cooking is what I want to _do._ Someday, I'll be internationally recognised. You'll see."

"Good luck," they both say in unison, trying not to crack a smile.

Izumi noticed this and fumed. One day, she thinks determinedly, I'll show them all.

* * *

**Kidnapped:**

The day of the Farewell Party was here, and everyone was begging for Zoë to sign their yearbooks and let them sign hers. Soon, Zoë's year book was littered all over with scribbles, not even leaving a centimetre of space. Mia was supposed to give the parting speech soon, and Zoë stood waiting with Li for her. She wished it'd be over soon, she was aching to enjoy all the festivities and take part in all the celebrations which their juniors had organised for them.

Mia finally came to take her place in the podium and cleared her throat, and began with her speech. It was a success. Everyone cheered loudly as Mia stepped off the stage blushing, the colour of a ripe beetroot. They joined the celebrations taking place. Li was being a wet blanket, moaning and complaining about in this hellhole everything will remain boring.

At 5 pm, beat and spent, Zoë and the others took off for home. Zoë looked behind her shoulders curiously. She had that feeling of being followed again. _Nerves_, she thought, thinking she was just really tired from all the dancing.

"I'm home!" she called out, before remembering her parents had left to enjoy their second honeymoon since this morning. They'll be away the whole weekend. Zoë sighed. She wasn't really in the mood to cook for only her own self. But she didn't want to spend two more nights on leftover pizza as well. Thinking of postponing this thought, she went up to her room and took a long hot bath, reading a fashion magazine.

She didn't know when she fell asleep, but when she woke up, it was dark. She got up, wincing as feeling in her cramped back and neck returned. Drying herself, she stepped out of the bathroom and stood in front of her closet, deciding which night suit to wear. Not really deciding, she booted up her computer to hear some songs. She combed her hair while it booted up and logged on the internet and opened her ID. Just then, as if by magic, she got a new e-mail.

Curious, she opened it, and her eyes widened more with every word she read. There was only one sentence.

_Would you like to start? Reply with Yes or No._

She re read it, thinking it was a hoax. She shook her head. Of course it wasn't. The same thing had happened to them around seven to eight years ago. She replied with _Yes._

Almost immediately, she got another mail. This one was supposed to be giving her the instructions to get on which subway. She frowned while reading, for it carried more detail.

_Reach the Shibuya Station at 10:00 pm. A train will be waiting for you. This time the Adventure will take much longer and for that Real Time will pass unlike before. It can be days to months. Leave a note explaining to your family the logical reason for your disappearance._

Zoë looked at the clock. It was 9:15 pm. Plenty of time if she thought things over carefully. How would she explain her disappearance for maybe a few months? Just as she was thinking it, she got another e-mail. There, her problems were half solved. She quickly took out a paper and pen and began copying it down, inserting a few of her own words to make it look more personal.

_~ Dearest Mamma and Pappa,_

_I tried calling you, but was unable to reach you where you are. There may be a network error or signal problem. I hope wherever you are right now you are enjoying a lot and making most of your time as you have to return by tonight! I have some very exciting news for you! I heard from The Hong Kong Leading Chefs yesterday! I have been accepted as an intern! They have a ticket waiting for me at the airport and everything and I am just on my way there_ _to pick it up and the plane will be departing immediately. I am taking little with me because I plan to shop till I drop there. I will be using my credit card of course. Just so you know it is currently Sunday, 01 April, 5 pm right now. No, I am not April fooling you! LOL!_

_I am so so so sorry I couldn't have wished you a more proper goodbye. I promise to call you online as soon as I reach there and once more when I'm settled in my room to give you the details. But I'm running late as it is!_

_Lots and lots of love, hugs and kisses! Ciao!_

_~ Your Zoë_

It wasn't Sunday right now, but Saturday, the day of her graduation, the 31st of March. Obviously, the intention must've been to show she will leave tomorrow, the night of her parent's return to avoid further suspicion. Otherwise her parents might think she secretly eloped or something. Ha! As if she even had a boyfriend to elope with in the first place.

She hurriedly dressed while she nuked a piece of the leftover pizza before leaving to eat on the way. Who knows when she'll be eating again? Besides, she was hungry. She then swiftly packed a few more essentials in her all-purpose backpack and stuck the note on the fridge. She was late.

She hurried out of her house, locking the door behind her and putting the key beneath the front mat. She looked right, and then left.

If she moved right, she would hit the streets and come across the downtown traffic, cars honking madly, lots of lights and many people squeezing their way around and past each other.

If she moved left, she would come across a long, narrow alleyway, which was a shortcut to the subway station, and the route she used to take on her way to school every morning. It escaped to the main road, and the advantage was she can avoid a lot of pushing and shovelling against random people which will save time. But it was dark right now, and the alleyway would be completely deserted with only one dim streetlight lighting the whole thing. She didn't want to go there so late.

Making a quick decision and shaking her head at her stupidity, she hurried off to her left. What could she do? She was late and it was a faster and rush-free route, even if less secure.

She reached the alleyway, and began jogging across it. A few minutes later and as the downtown lights came closer and closer, her pace increased. She looked at her cell phone. She was going to make it! But just then, a shadow appeared and blocked the lights from around it, refusing to let any pass through it like a black hole. She suddenly stopped, her breath catching in her throat. Could it be the same person who had been stalking her the past couple of days? No, it couldn't be, that was all a figment created by her over active imagination. It was probably someone else crossing the alleyway to get to the other way across, the one from where she had just some. She might even recognise them if it were one of her neighbours.

The dark figure started walking toward her, and Zoë started getting more and more nervous. There was only one way to confirm if that person was after her. She turned around and started walking away, trying to look casual. She glanced behind her shoulder and saw the figure was approaching more quickly now. She began trotting, and the figure started running. She felt as if the ground had vanished from beneath her. That person was after her!

She started to run as fast as she could, but the figure was approaching closer and closer. It would outrun her! It was much faster. She continued to run, sobbing, not giving up. Maybe it was just a mugger after her money. Maybe it was a cell phone snatcher. Maybe it was a molester who raped young girls and left them dying in an alley. He would torture her to get more turned on.

Strong hands gripped her arms. She tried pulling the fingers loose but they just tightened more. They felt like they belonged to a boy. A sweet smelling cloth was hugged against her face, smelling like a strange, sweet mixture of a cough syrup and essence of vanilla. She held her breath, being positive it was chloroform, knowing that if she inhaled it she would be knocked out that much faster. She struggled. But that only earned her a punch in her abdomen, causing her to take a sudden, sharp intake of break. It was like a punch to the neurons in her brain, she was suddenly dizzy and unsteady. Her struggles grew weaker, her muscles started to feel heavy, her eye lids drooped. She fought to stay awake, but in a few seconds, welcomed the pressing darkness surrounding her and pressing at her sides in an overly covert embrace.

When she opened her eyes, she couldn't remember where she was. She remembered having a strange dream but she couldn't quite remember what it was. She started to get up, but winced as she tried to move her stiff, cramped neck from the wall of the bath tub. Her eyes had trouble adjusting and she failingly groped for the towel. Not finding it, she groggily got up, wanting to kill a few hours on the net. But as her fingers entwined around the doorknob of the bathroom and turned it, she found it was locked. Frowning, she tried it again, once, twice, thrice, pushing herself against the door. Now, as she grew more and more awake, she couldn't even remember closing the door of her bathroom, let alone locking it. And she noticed the room was dark because it really _was _dark, and not because she was moving with her eyes were closed. She noticed her eyes were wide open.

Suddenly, she remembered bits of her dream like a rushing sweep of _déjà vu_. She looked back to see that it wasn't a bath tub she had gotten up from, but a makeshift bed with musty sheets. Her bag was lying beside the mattress. The room was otherwise barren. She couldn't see the colour of the dusty walls and floor. From the little she could make out of it, she couldn't recognise the room at all.

Panicked, she pushed herself against the door, struggling to get it opened. She started banging and screaming against it. Soon, her hands were sore and she couldn't scream anymore. She threw herself on the bed, beat and spent with angry tears in her eyes. She gripped her hair tightly with both hands, but they weren't doing her any good so she let go of them slowly, each strand escaping between her fingers.

She didn't have enough time to feel sorry for herself. She bolted upright when she heard a noise outside the room, of a creaking door like of that in a set of an horror movie. Then she heard the noise of the door slamming against its frame. Did someone hear her screams? Was it someone who had come to save her? Or was it merely her kidnapper returned, to induce further torture on her?

A bolt was removed from outside the door of her room, at least, that's what she thought it was by the sound. The door pushed open slowly as she held her breath to take her first look at her assailant.

Someone slowly stepped in, but it was so dark that like before, she could only make out the shape. The person stood there for a few second looking at her, and Zoë stared back. Then the person stepped out of the room and came back with a candle stuck on a ceramic plate, which threw feeble light across the whole room, creating long shadows across the length of every wall. When the person put the plate down on the ground and sat down facing her and she could see him clearly, she had another rushing sense of _déjà vu, _leaving her dizzy and senseless. She had a sudden flow of flashbacks, one after the other racing through her mind reminding her of memories she had long since buried and only revived them in the darkness of her own room when she lay down to sleep. She remembered another situation like this, a long time ago, when a much younger Zoë, who was really Izumi at the time, roaming around a darkened place with a younger reflection of the boy sitting in front of her.

She didn't have to struggle to remember his name or reach for it in her clouding subconscious. The name had always been echoing in the chambers of her brain since all the years they had not seen each other and been apart. When she was feeling especially lonely and depressed, she whispered his name out loud to the night when she lay down for bed every night, covers pulled up to her face so that anyone unannounced who came banging in would not immediately notice the tears which always accompanied the name. She knew that one day, she would see him again. And that day was now.

"Takuya…?" She whispered out into the night again.


	2. Mr Stalker

**Mr. Stalker**

* * *

"Takuya?" Zoë whispers softly.

She can see his silhouette as he kneels towards her. He smiles secretively as he hears his name coming from her lips, yet he says nothing. Over the candle, he reaches a hand forward and brushes a strand of her hair behind her ear. Her skin tingles where he had almost touched her.

He continues looking directly at her eyes, as if still trying to make himself believe that she is there. Zoë is doing the same thing.

She shakes her head to come back to her senses.

"What is this place Takuya? How did I get here? Were you kidnapped too?"

Takuya laughs softly as she said that.

"No," he says finally. Zoë felt something hearing his voice. It had grown a bit deeper since the last time they had been together.

"Then?" Zoë probes. "If someone evil doesn't want to kidnap and kill all the Legendary Warriors, then what explanation is there?"

"No Izumi-chan," Takuya says, a little amused. "No one wants to kidnap and kill all the Legendary Warriors."

Zoë wrinkles her face. "I'm not Izumi anymore. Nobody calls me that. Everyone now calls me..."

"Zoë," Takuya says, now wrinkling _his_ face. "I know. But I don't like that name. I like Izumi much better."

Zoë shakes her head, leaving the topic. "So how do we get out of here Takuya? I'm sure we must've missed the Trailmon by now. Did you get the message also?"

Takuya looks at her carefully. "No Izumi. I didn't get the message, and neither did you."

Zoë scoffs. "What are you talking about? Of course I got it! Ophanimon mailed me."

"No Izumi. Ophanimon didn't mail you. _I _did."

There is a few seconds silence.

"What?" Zoë says. "You're joking, right?"

"No Izumi. I'm not joking. I'm telling you the truth."

"But why on earth would you do that?"

Takuya's eyes haven't left her for a second. "It's simple. Because I wanted to get you out of the house Izumi-chan. I didn't want to make it look like that there had been a struggle in your house or leave any fingerprints. And I also wanted to make it look like you had left of your own will. They won't start looking for you real soon then either, if they're unsure whether you really ran away or were kidnapped."

Zoë doesn't believe a word of this.

"But why would you do that?" she says, speaking her mind.

"Simple Izumi. Because I want you."

She is sure she has misheard him. "Because you... What?"

Takuya continues to look at her. "I want you Izumi. I love you."

Zoë stares at him, eyes wide. Takuya doesn't blink, adding to the seriousness of the situation.

All of a sudden, Zoë starts laughing. Takuya is startled.

"Ok, very funny Takuya," she says, amidst a few giggles. "It was a good joke. For a second there I almost believed you. Now let's go back to my place and we can continue talking. This place is giving me the creeps. It's been so long we've..."

"NO!" Takuya shouts.

Zoë fell back, shocked. Anger was burning in Takuya's eyes.

"You think this is a joke? You think all I did for you is a fucking JOKE?"

Zoë recoils. Obviously she doesn't know what he's talking about.

"No Takuya," she tries again, calmly. "It's just that, I don't know what's going on. I need time to..."

"You have all the time in the world here! Do you know what trouble I've gone through? Do you know how long I've waited for this day?"

Zoë is too scared to say anything else, so she keeps quiet. Takuya looks at her angrily before getting up and pacing the room as he launches into his story.

"I've been watching you Izumi. I hadn't known where you were but I had hope. I knew I'd find you again someday, and that we'd be happy. I've loved you practically forever, and nothing has diminished my feelings for you all these years.

When your dear friend Lili and my friend Kōichi hooked up, it was like my deepest fantasies coming alive. We became closer than ever. I'd always wanted to tell you my feelings, but I was also always scared of rejection. So I kept telling myself, _I'll tell her tomorrow, I'll tell her tomorrow_.

But then, your friend dumped Kōichi, because she started having the hots for his twin. But Kōji rejected her, because he knew his brother had already slept with her and it would be unethical. Then she told all you girls to never associate yourselves with any of us guys again, because we're all liars and cheats and we even share all the carnal relationships we have with girls with each other. And like united girls you are, you listened to her. That _harlot _had hurt my best friend already. She went on further to hurt _me_, because that meant we would never see each other again, or even talk to each other again."

Zoë is insulted. Takuya is talking of The Taboo, the past between them which the girls never like to discuss, because it only hurt them. But he has his own version entirely.

"That's not true at all. Li dumped Kōichi because she found out he had slept with Cassie and Mona behind her back after she had told him she wasn't ready for It! And she liked Kōji only because he had always tried to warn her about his twin! He was trying to protect her, even if it meant turning on his own brother. But she trusted Kōichi, and he destroyed her life. She was a staunch believer of celibacy and having It with her husband only, and he used her even after knowing that. That's why we all took her side Takuya."

"Lies!" Takuya bellows. "All I know and care about is the fact that after that, you refused to even see me again!"

"I told you why! You guys betrayed all of our trusts."

"But that doesn't mean you and I had to stop talking to each other! Who cares about what the others do?"

"That isn't how it works! Takuya, we girls have to look out for each other. And it wasn't only about her. After that stunt you guys pulled, hiding this information from us, we were never sure if we could trust any of you again! Who knows what other things you guys talked about with each other about us behind our backs and what other information you kept hidden? Kōichi and Li weren't the only couple in our group! JP didn't even have enough tact to shut up in front of us girls, when he talked about... About breast sizes and... And other stuff about girls! That's why Aqumi, Joanne, Li, Mia and I switched to a convent school, where we could be away from boys altogether." _From boys like you all._

"Don't even get me started on JP!" Takuya screams. "I hate him! Do you know how he to talks about _you_? Do you know JP was planning on proving to everyone you're not as unapproachable as everyone seems to thinks you are. It was all I could do to control myself! I don't even like the guys I hang out with!"

"That's precisely my point! That's why we stopped hanging out."

"But what part do I play in any of this?" Takuya cries. Real tears have formed in his eyes. Zoë looks at them, shocked.

"Why did you all have to punish _me_? I had never done anything to offend you Izumi. Never. I'd die before that."

There is silence. Not even the flame of the lone candle makes any noise. Then Takuya speaks again.

"You see, ever since we came back from the Digital World, all I've ever thought about is you. I could never get you out of my mind Izumi. And since the past couple of weeks, I've been watching you from afar. I even called you from the payphone that day just to hear your voice."

"So it's _you _who've been following me?"

He nods. "And whenever anybody else talks about you in a crude way, it's all I can do to stop myself from killing that person!"

"Get off it," Zoë says unbelievingly. "The Takuya I know won't ever even hurt his enemies until and unless it was absolutely necessary."

"I've changed Izumi. That day Jason was talking bad about you. The day after that, I filled his clothes with red ants. They did all the work for me. It gave me an inner satisfaction watching him jump around and scratching himself all day all the while yelling "bloody hell" the way he does."

Zoë is looking nauseated. She can't put the picture in her mind even after Takuya was so particularly clear.

Takuya says, "That's not all. Let me show you something."

He goes to the corner of the room and comes back with a steel baseball bat which she hasn't seen lying there before because of the dark.

"Do you know who this is?" He asks, holding up the bat to the light so Zoë could see it properly.

"A bat, but you don't play..."

"I do now Izumi. And this bat here is my trusty old sidekick, Trusty."

"I don't get it," Zoë says.

"Of course you don't, so let me explain. I can't always do all of the dirty work myself, so I let old Trusty here do the job."

Zoë is suddenly scared. "Dirty work like, w-what?"

"Dirty work like, beating the pulp out of anybody who says anything against you or bad about you."

Izumi suddenly remembers something.

"That guy I once dated... Steve... Who wouldn't leave me alone even after I told him I wouldn't go out with him... He was found at the back of a bar with his skull almost cracked. It... It wasn't a mugger... It was... You?"

Takuya nods. Zoë is fast grasping the meaning of his words even if she doesn't want to believe them.

"Yes. He even kept grabbing your behind and acted as if it was an accident. He made a bet with me and a few other guys that he could lay you in less than twenty one days. I bet you didn't know that. But don't worry. I love taking care of your problems for you and will continue to do so."

Zoë puts her hands over her mouth in horror.

"Everyone else also... John, Kiba, Pete, René..."

Takuya nods again. "Yup. All taken care of by yours truly. None of those guys were honest. Even if John was... I wasn't planning on letting anyone touch you Izumi."

"Don't!" Zoë screams. "Don't _call_ me that!"

Takuya is saddened. "Why Izumi? It's a perfectly pretty name."

"You've lost your right to call me that! Even if you didn't two years ago, you've done so now."

"No," Takuya says, eyes filling with tears. He comes nearer, but Izumi's eyes or on the bat he is holding.

"Don't say that Izumi, please don't say that," he says, sitting down in front of her.

He sees where her gaze is going. He can see Zoë is afraid. He puts the bat down and holds out both his arms.

"Don't," he pleads.

When she says nothing, he continues, "I love you so much it hurts. All these times I'd controlled myself. Then I couldn't take it anymore. I started learning your daily routine like what you do and when you do. How you live. I may have stolen some accessories of yours from your room to get me by, but it wasn't enough, I _had _to have you whole, and now I do."

"You've been in my room?" Zoë speaks finally, her voice cracking.

"Well... yeah... Maybe once. Or twice. But that was when you weren't around. The second time, I may have... tucked you in, but I'm not that stupid and lame enough to hang around all night and watch you _sleep _and risk getting caught."

"Thank God. For a second I thought you were going all freakish Twilight on me."

Takuya shakes his head, disgusted to be compared to a fictional fairy. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a few items and holds them out. They were all items belonging to Zoë; A pair of socks, a yo-yo, a hair-brush and a scarf. And while he was holding out his hands, Zoë saw he was wearing one of her bracelets which she had wanted to wear for her graduation and couldn't find it, and a ring.

Zoë is torn between feelings of outrage and passion. She has always felt for Takuya as well, but the situation is completely different. She suspects Takuya is a little if not more, unstable. She can't bring herself to think "psycho". She realises that no matter what, she still likes him. And maybe if she acts according to his wishes for a while, he'll forget this madness and let her go.

She leans forward and enters his embrace. He holds her tightly against himself, resting his forehead on her shoulders, pressing her body against his. Zoë clings onto him as well, enjoying the sensation. She can't believe all the hurt she has caused him. Maybe it all could have been avoided if Takuya would've just come up to her and said something. But deep inside, she knows that she'd've choked her desires and refused to believe him, or even listened to him for that matter. She had lost trust in all the guys of the Frontier Gang a long time ago; she and the rest of the girls.

When he finally lets her go, she looks to see something like peace on his face. Maybe now things will start to get straight.

"So," she begins softly. "Let's go home and talk."

He opens his eyes and gapes at her. "Why would I wanna do that?"

Zoë struggles to keep calm. "Don't you wanna catch up after so much time?"

"Of course I do. That's why we're here in the first place aren't we?"

"But... But you can't honestly have me live here in this place. I don't even know where we are!"

Takuya smiles. "That's the whole beauty of my plan Izumi. We'll stay here together, away from the rest of the world. We'll be like a husband and a wife. You can stay here and make this place pretty while I go out. I'll provide you with everything I can. Then I can come back and spend time with you. And those days when I can't, I'll give you a message somehow. But I'll never make you feel alone. Never. I'll die before I will. I love you too much for that."

Zoë fear starts to come back. "Takuya. You don't have to do this. Just let me go, and we can continue to hang out together whenever you want. Like tonight, my parents aren't home, so you can stay as long as you..."

"No!" Takuya interrupts loudly. "I don't intend to share you with anyone! I don't intend to let anyone look at you in the evil way they do! All they care about and want is your body! They don't care about you as a person!"

"But Takuya, that's how the world _is_..."

"Let it be! It's me against the world! I'll fight each and every one of them! They think they know it all? We'll never be like them. We're different. We'll have our own lives here. Years and years I've waited for the day you'll finally be mine. Months I've spent to arrange everything and put together a plan! I'm not just going to throw it all away coz you're finally starting to have second thoughts!"

"_I'm_ starting to have...? What?"

"Yes, you are. It was all easy for you to ignore me and carry on with your glamorous life. And now when you're beginning to have second thoughts about leaving me stranded behind alone these years, you think the past can all be rectified? All my hurt also, like it never even happened? The pain I went through? No Izumi. There has to be a price for my pain; a reward of some kind for going through all that and surviving. You've never gone through this, so you'll never know. But now that you're with me, I'll make sure you never have to go through _any _kind of pain ever again. I'll walk through fire for you Izumi."

Zoë doesn't know what to say or feel. She feels like loving him, but then she'd have to go through with his madness and stay here in this God-knows-where place and act like a dutiful wife, with the exception of being allowed to or able to leave her den. Moreover, she is afraid of what he might force her into doing. She is thinking along the lines of rape.

But she doesn't think he will stoop down that low, as he has managed to convince her he won't hurt her. But she also fears to think what he might and can do in his insanity. This is a side of him she has never known or seen before. She suspects this side of his came into existence only after she left.

She looks up to see he has straightened the sheets on the bed she had woken up from. He smiles when he sees her looking.

"I'm not going to be leaving you alone for your very first night only love. I've told everyone at home I'll be spending the night at Kōji's place, because our university starts on Monday and we need to blow off party steam and that thing. We can sleep together."

When Zoë looks panic stricken and strangulated, he flushes.

"I didn't mean it that way! I just meant... No! I just meant we can sleep together on the same bed! Not... I didn't mean _sleeping _together!"

Zoë doesn't realise she had been holding her breath. She lets it go slowly.

She believes him. He genuinely looks like he hasn't had sex in his mind at all. But she also believes that one day, he'll want this. Every boy does.

"It's late," he says softly. "We should be getting to sleep."

Zoë doesn't know what time it really is and neither does she care. She can see he has a wrist watch in his hand, and with a jolt, she realises it's the one she had gifted him on his birthday two years ago. She is surprised he even still has it.

She comes forward and sits down on the bed. He comes and sits beside her.

"Do you want to change into your night suit or anything else?" he asks softly.

She shakes her head. "I do feel a little cold," she confides. She hadn't thought to wear a jacket, and right now she was rather chilly.

He took off his own jacket and gave it to her. She wore it and tucked it under her jeans, feeling rather shy to do so in front of him.

He takes her hand in both of his and rubs it with his thumbs. She lets him. He then moves his hands to her face and repeats the process with her cheeks. He feels her lashes and runs his fingers through her hair. Zoë closes her eyes and lets herself fall in his arms which were feeling like her castle.

She doesn't know when she fell asleep. She opens her eyes groggily and finds herself in his arms, lying down on the pillows with the sheets tangled beneath her feet. She could feel his legs against her own and one arm over her and the other under her neck, holding her close. His chin is resting above her head, brushing her hair.

With sleepy eyes, she sees him with his eyes partially closed, breathing soft whispers. His lips are a little apart. He snuggles in closer, his arm running over her back.

"I love you Izumi," he whispers, still in his sleep ridden state. Zoë looks at him, lying there asleep like a little child grabbing his teddy bear and snuggling it too close to make sure it is there with him in his war against the monsters underneath his bed. She feels a rush of barely suppressed emotions towards him.

"I love you too," she whispers back.


	3. A Look Outside

**A Look Outside**

* * *

**Day 2**

* * *

"And for your labs or studios, which will be three days a week, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, you'll all be heading to the main campus of Tokyo University in Tsukuba. Attendance is a must, and no excuses will be entertained if you are late for class..."

Aqumi keeps groaning. The orientation looks like it's never going to end. They have already read whatever they need to know from the brochure, so she really sees no excuse for there to be an orientation in the first place.

She decides to scan the crowd to have a look at her future classmates, plus a few seniors. She is looking from one face to another, uninterested, when suddenly she sees someone which zaps her sleepiness away.

She nudges Joanne, who was sitting beside her.

"Look who it is," she whispers to her.

Joanne looks and sees where Aqumi was pointing at two boys, a brunette and a dark haired, playing softball in the field next to theirs. They look vaguely familiar...

"My God!" she exclaims. "Shit! Li, Mia, look who's here in uni with us."

Mia puts down her phone. "Her phone's still off," she informs everyone, and looks to see what everyone is staring at.

"Isn't that...?" she says, puzzled.

"Takuya. And Kōichi," Li says distastefully. "I KNEW we should've chosen Japan Women's University!"

"Aren't you tired of studying in an all girls' for two to three years?" Aqumi asks mildly.

"Nope. And speak for yourself. You have this thing going on for Lucas."

"Well, yeah," she agrees.

"Look on the bright side," Joanne says, teasing. "Kōji's here as well!"

"Oh yeah?" She challenges. "And how do you know?"

She nods back at the players. "I know because the Catcher has just taken off his helmet."

She is indeed right. He had taken it off and handed it to another boy, revealing himself to be almost completely identical to the third baseman who was Kōichi. He is tying a bandanna around his head while he runs to take his new position at the Short Stop.

"Hot," she says in awe. But then she looks at Kōichi who had come to discuss something with him and her face changes expression and colour immediately.

"We'll just have to pretend that we've never noticed them then."

"I'm all up for that, but how long can we carry this on? I mean, they're our seniors, obviously. They're bound to notice us sooner or later," Mia says.

"Where the heck is Zoë?" Aqumi says. "She would know what to do. She spent this whole year doing a boring course and would know how to deal with unwanted customers."

"And why the heck is her phone off?" Mia says, trying to call her number again.

"I went over to her house yesterday to tell her about our plan to go ice skating because she hadn't replied to me since the Farewell Reunion Party. And she didn't answer the door also," Li says.

"Maybe she was asleep," Aqumi says.

"At 4:30 pm?"

"Well, yeah. Last day of vacation and all. It's only natural."

"No, something's wrong. If she'd've been asleep, she spent a whole day without texting any of us once, and she doesn't even come to the orientation," Mia says.

"She told us she had no interest in continuing her studies, remember? And she spent the whole last year doing her Food Science course to prove it also. Maybe that's why," Jo says.

"Instead of throwing around maybes and sitting around worrying so much, let's just directly go to her house today after this shit of an orientation," Aqumi says.

Everyone agrees. After another half hour of boring slides on the projector and numerous boasting about the university by the Principal, they notice that more students were coming and taking the seats. When the seats are all occupied, the students had no problem sitting on the carpeted ground. And they kept piling up.

"What the hell is going on?" Jo asks.

She was soon answered by the principal herself. "And now, all the first years will come up one by one as they are called and introduce themselves and why they chose their particular majors to the whole school so that they'll feel more at home."

"What is this fucking system?" Li exclaims.

"A system which ruins our plans to pass by unnoticed by our nemesis much much sooner rather than much much later," Mia says grimly.

They had no choice. The field is so overcrowded now that it is near impossible to walk away and escape without attracting the attention of everyone.

"Barlas Joanne, you're up first," the principal calls out.

"Why the hell am I up first? What kind of a university is this, where there isn't a single first year whose surname starts with "A"?"

"Hurry up and move," Aqumi nudges her.

She walks up awkwardly to the makeshift stage and stands before the mike. She looks awkward standing there, with her dirty blond hair with a single pink streak tied back in a high ponytail. She's wearing a mini jacket over her shirt and her clothes are hanging off her skinny body giving her an anorexic frame.

"Konnichiwa. I uhhh... As the Principal already told you all, I'm Barlas Joanne, but my friends just call me Jo." She looks at the principal who was motioning for her to go on. "I'm er... majoring in Electronics. I picked this because... I wanted to prove to my mother that girls can excel in engineering as well, which uhhh... I hope to do. Excel in my field I mean. That way she'll never underestimate me again."

"Arigato Joanne," the principal says hurriedly. "Next is..."

As Joanne walks back to her group of friends, all of whom were laughing at her, she noticed three pairs of eyes following her instead of the next person who was summoned. She knew who they belonged to, and she fought not to meet their gazes.

"Ore wa Fujimoto Myakka. I'm majoring in Marine Biology because I have had a fascination with the deep since I was 10."

The girls all giggled. Aqumi saw even the boys fighting off their smiles. They were the only ones in the entire audience who really got the joke.

Mia is wearing a sleeveless shirt with a mini and thigh length socks. Mia and Zoë had just recently gone shopping as they both believed to be "in" on the latest thing.

"Ghala Lili. I'm majoring in Film making because," - here she meets the gazes of the three boys who will be making her life complicated in university by just being present – "I feel I have many interesting stories to tell." She smiles in satisfaction when she sees one of the dark haired boys in the trio squirm, and walks back to her seat, giving the appearance of a majestic bird.

She wears a plaid red and black skirt and knee high socks ending in combat boots. Over it, she has on a black tank top and chain bracelets and bands and metal rings over her elbow length black gloves. Her eyes are clouded in kohl and her hair is tied back in two ponytails like a typical Japanese schoolgirl.

"Orimoto Izumi," the principal calls out. Everyone turns their head to look. Most of the students assembled here know exactly who she is and wait excitedly for her to come and speak.

The principal repeats her name, yet still no Zoë comes. Everyone looks back at front, disappointed, when the next name is called and Zoë is declared absent.

"Watanabe Aqumi. Future Manga Artist," was all Aqumi said. She has an Elegant Aristocrat Gothic look. Her dress is just sweeping off the floor and her dark hair is whishing behind her.

They are finally done, and dismissed. The girls make a bee line for the canteen but their plan is intercepted by a lot of people stopping them and demanding to know where Zoë is.

"How does she _do _that?" Mia says jealously as yet another boy stopped them to ask the whereabouts of Zoë. "She is absent from the scene, yet still manages to up her popularity by doing absolutely nothing?"

They shrug. The line is moving at a turtle's pace and they are all anxious to get something to eat and drink instead of worrying why Zoë is a lot more popular than Mia.

"Hey, digital team!" a voice calls, apparently directed at them. Without even looking, the girls knew who is calling them. They look towards them, scandalised by their daring to do so.

The person who has apparently spoken is Takuya. He is wearing a baseball cap turned backwards with messy spikes falling over his forehead and is leaning against a steel baseball bat.

The twins stand on his side. The one with the bandanna, unshaven look and Heavy Metal style is no doubt Kōji. The other one with the shorter hair and emo look and clean shaven except the little patch of hair on his chin like an ink mark is none other than Kōichi. Standing together like they were, the two give the term "Brothers of Destruction" a very realistic feel. The girls can tell the only way to be able to tell the twins apart would be because of Kōji's trademark bandana, stubble and long hair giving an uncombed yet still an awesome fly away look.

"What?" Joanne is the one to speak.

"Kōji wants to know where Izumi is," Takuya says.

"Don't we all. He has a mouth, he can speak for himself," she says.

They raise their eyebrows and look at each other.

"Ok, well, can we ask where she is?" Kōji says, as they look back at her.

"You may ask," Joanne replies.

They look at each other again before speaking. "Well, where is she?" Kōichi asks.

Joanne looks at him. "None of your damn business," she says, turning her back to them like the others.

"You should've just kept your mouth shut," they hear Kōji speaking to Kōichi.

He is right. If Kōichi hadn't spoken, _maybe_ she'd've obliged in answering them. None of them trusted the boys anymore, not after they had found out what hypocrites and how foul mouthed they all are.

They then started talking amongst their own selves, speaking something about their new formation in softball. Apparently softball is "in" with the boys, like Mia and Zoë would say. They also mention the other boys of their old gang; apparently they are all in the main campus of the university located in Tsukuba where they will be going on Wednesday for their labs or studios.

Just their luck. Out of all the universities in Tokyo, they choose the one which re unites them with all the boys they have fought to keep out of communication the most for so long.

The girls all look shaken, especially Li, who had not even bothered to look at the boys. No one can tell what she is feeling exactly.

They can't stand there with the boys beside them a second longer. They leave for the station, hoping to get something to eat at Zoë's place.

They take the Roppongi station bound train. They are all intent on their plan to find out about Zoë. Her phone is still off, and she has _never _gone on this long without communication.

When they reach her home, they see nothing unusual.

They knock on the door. A moment later, Zoë's mother answers.

"Konnichiwa!" Everyone choruses. Zoë's mother smiles. She's fond of the girls. They are after all Zoë closest friends on earth.

"Hello girls, come on in," she says, holding the door wide open.

They all trudge in like it's their own home, which more or less it is. They have been going in and out of this house for eight to nine years. Mia and Jo go to help Orimoto Abelie with the snacks while Aqumi and Li trudged up the stairs to Zoë's room.

When they open the door, however, they find her room neatly assembled with her sheets folded in place and not a single shirt or sock lying around on the floor, which is very unusual for a fashion freak like Zoë. Everything was kept neatly in place and in order.

They look around, puzzled. Aqumi knocked and tried the bathroom door, finding it unlocked and unoccupied. They went back downstairs. Li reached out to grab a handful of chips, and Mia knocks her hand aside, telling her to wait for everyone.

"Aunti, where's Zoë?" Aqumi asks as Abelie sets down a plate of bread cakes. They called each other's parents as Aunt and Uncle, having been friends for so long and the parents of others becoming like their own second parents.

"Oh, didn't she tell you?" she says, surprised.

"Tell us what?" everyone says, together, which causes Abelie to crack another smile.

"Well, I thought you girls knew. She got accepted as an intern at the Hong Kong chefs! She says she left yesterday just before your uncle and I came back from our vacation."

"That's so awesome!" Jo and Mia cry. Aqumi and Li, however, remain quiet.

"But why didn't she tell us?" Aqumi asks, hurt. Li is dissolved in thought. Something is tugging at the back of her mind for attention, but she doesn't quite know what it is.

"She hasn't contacted us yet either Aqumi-chan," Abelie says kindly. "She said she will as soon as she is settled at her room there and get her hands on an internet connection. For all we know, she is as usual sleeping like a log from her jet lag."

Aqumi shrugs. "Yeah, you're right," she giggles, knowing how much a heavy sleeper Zoë is.

After they were done shovelling down as much snacks as they can and making small talk with Zoë's mother, they leave.

"I still find it hard to believe that she didn't even tell us anything before leaving," Aqumi says sadly. "I mean, it's not like we were out of the country that she couldn't reach us with a simple text message or call."

"Come on, Zoë will never forget us like this," Jo scolds her. "She must have left in a real rush and must be really really busy."

"Yeah, but... She always said we would be the first ones she'll tell. I feel kinda... you know... left out. Even disappointed that she's gone. It won't be the same without her," Mia says.

"Come on! We should be happy for her," Jo says.

"Yeah of course. But I can't lie to myself about how I feel!" Mia shoots at her.

"Me too," Aqumi admits.

As they are walking away discussing about the way they feel about Zoë's abrupt departure, none of them notice a boy in a baseball cap silently prowling them a little distance away, who has been with them ever since they left Zoe's house, seemingly absorbed in his Nintendo DS, eavesdropping upon their conversation. Neither did they notice him silently walk away when they finished jokingly planning impossible pranks about how to evade the boys in the upcoming days.

* * *

"I'm back," Takuya calls.

Zoë looks up, her eyes filled with misery. She had not bothered to brush her hair nor change her clothes. She had done nothing all day except re reading a Sweet Valley High novel. She used to read these novels back in ninth grade, and that is what Takuya apparently remembers her reading all the time back then. Takuya obviously didn't read books.

"I saw your friends today. And your mother also. They're all happy."

Zoë tries not to make it look more obvious how this piece of information stings.

It's the third night of her imprisonment, and her situation hasn't changed much. Takuya still remains stubborn about keeping her caged in this miserable place. A place he hasn't relented on telling her much about.

When Takuya had been away for the entire day today, she felt that he had taken a huge chunk of her with him. She had missed him to the point of pain, a kind pain she has never felt before. It was like a huge fist clenched on her throat preventing her from breathing, and all the while her nerves and intestines stretched to reach Takuya wherever he was far away. She had been downright miserable, staring at walls, awaiting his return, and at the same time dreading it.

Takuya had been nothing but nice to her the whole time she has been here, but he remains stubborn about releasing her. He has showered her with the love and care he keeps swearing he'll make up for the years he hadn't been there. She felt scared; scared of her own feelings and scared of Takuya. He is certainly no stranger to violence and doesn't really believe in "talking things out"... He had told her stories about letting the steel bat he's always carrying around with him do the talking rather than he himself.

He really feels like she is a parrot he has worked hard on caging and that once he opens the door of the cage, she'll spread her wings and soar high above never to look back or return. She had never seen this side of him before and now she has seen plenty of it and she dreads she'll be seeing plenty more of it in the future.

And she should've been glad that Takuya had finally left. She wasn't sure what she feels about him. She isn't sure if she is afraid of him, hate him or if she is in love with him.

If one thing there is that she is sure of, is that Takuya doesn't plan on releasing her anytime soon.


	4. Brushing The Surface

**Many thanks to Mickie15 for reviewing and encouraging me to continue this. She forced me to get through a little writer's block, which amongst other reasons was also a reason which caused this much delay in updating XD**

* * *

**Brushing the Surface**

* * *

**Day 3**

* * *

Joanne and Lili are roaming the fields when they come upon a group of boys taking a break from a game of softball. Jo can't stop her eyes from flying towards the field and search for three familiar faces. Sure enough, it soon lands on the trio. They aren't hard to miss as they might or might not know that a litter of girls sit a bit away drinking them in with their eyes.

The boys are as usual fooling around. More water was being drunk by the ground than their own selves. Kōji pushes Kōichi's bottle against his face, causing the water to land all over his face and clothes and causing him to choke some. Takuya snorts, causing a little water to erupt out of his nostrils. But none of the fan girls seem to mind. Instead, Jo heard them commenting on how it makes him look more manly.

Just then, Takuya catches her eye and smiles, throwing Jo and Li a wink. The twins follow his gaze. Kōichi suddenly becomes very interested in wiping the water off his clothes.

The girls very pointedly look away and start walking with their noses in the air, when suddenly they are ambushed by the fan girls.

"Excuse me," a very jumpy girl says. "You guys are like, Zoë's friends aren't you?"

"Yeah, and she's not going to continue college," Jo says before anyone can ask the inevitable question they have no doubt come to ask. She is so used to answering this to the countless people who ask them that it comes out automatically.

"Reeeeeaaaaally?" the girls all exclaim, extremely disappointed.

Then not really waiting for their answer, the girl who had spoken first continued.

"We couldn't help but notice that... Well..." there is an outburst of giggling. "You people are friends with Takuya and his friends the twins right?"

Jo and Li both look at each other. Again, the fan girls don't wait for an answer.

"Oh em Gee! You guys are like, so totally sitting with us! We have like, _loads _to talk to you about!" another one says.

Jo immediately starts to object, but Li grabs her hand.

"Wait," she tells her softly. "It's our chance to find out new and updated stuff about the guys."

Jo stops, considering. Curiosity gets the better of her and she and Li join the girls and find a place to sit.

They introduce themselves to each other, the seven fan girls whose names they'll no doubt have trouble remembering the next day.

"Soooooo..." The fan girls all purr, anxious for news on how these new girls happen to know, according to them, three of the most popular and sought after boys in the school.

Jo was about to speak when Li squeezes her hand again, indicating to let her do the talking. Jo had the uncanny habit of jabbering on and on and on and not knowing when to stop or what to say in which situations.

"We used to know them quite well," Li says casually. "We were friends back in primary school through middle school. Then we just sort of drifted apart after we came into High School and changed schools. We don't know what they've been up to since then."

The girls all clamber forward, all of them anxious to be the one to share their knowledge of the boys and to show them how much they know.

"Well, for one thing," a bubbly girl with curly hair named Jodi says before anyone could be the ones to open their mouths first. "They're like, _totally _the hottest guys _ever_!"

"I like Kōji best, he's sooo hot!" a girl named Meg says, unconsciously twirling her navel ring.

"No way, Kōichi is hotter!" a girl named Suzanne says, shoving Meg.

There is an outburst of arguing in which Li and Jo could just look at one face to the next.

"Ok fine," Jodi says, raising her voice above the others. "We like, _all_ have our own opinions of the twins and who we prefer more, but there's like, _no_ denying the fact that who we _really _want is none other than Takuya!"

The girls stop arguing and nod, sighing dreamily, all except a girl with blonde hair who just looks annoyed.

"Why Takuya?" Jo asks.

"Well, for like, one thing, he's like _the _most popular boy, and softball captain."

"And he's like the nicest guy you'll ever get to find!" Melissa squeals.

"I thought Kōichi is the nicest one," Li blurts out the first thing which came to her head.

"Well yeah," Anne says, tucking a strand of hair behind her hair. "But the thing is, he gets around."

"What do you mean by he gets around? Is he a flirt?" Li demands before Jo could pinch her.

"Well, you know, he's the one who makes the moves," Kokoro cracks, and everyone went into peals of giggles.

When Li looks at Jo questioningly, the blonde girl named Azumi, the one who had acted annoyed when the girls swooned at the mention of Takuya's name, finally speaks up.

"You know, he's the talker. The one who gets all the girls by mere words alone. Every girl he talks to is convinced that his heart belongs to them even though he never really says the exact words."

"Charming," Li says nastily. Jo jabs her again. The gesture is not missed by Kokoro, apparently the clown of the group.

"What do _you _have it in for him?" Kokoro says raising an eyebrow. "Has he slept with you and disappeared the next day, never to be heard of from again?"

The girls laugh wildly. Li's face turns the colour of a ripe pomegranate and she opens her mouth to retort, but Jo grabs her arm and pulls her slightly back. This isn't going so well. Jo knows it's up to her now to do the talking and change the topic. Fast. Before Li decides she didn't like Kokoro's face, which can turn extremely nasty.

"Well," she hurriedly presses on, addressing Jodi. "You were telling us about Takuya."

"Yeah," Jodi says, still giggling. "He's like the hunk everybody wants, and no one is even afraid of Azumi!"

Azumi becomes annoyed again. Jo looks at her before speaking again.

"Why does anyone have a reason to be afraid of Azumi?" she says.

"For one thing," Anne says, curling a strand of hair in her finger. "She's the girlfriend!"

Their mouths drop. They look at each other clearly thinking the same thing. _Takuya has a _girlfriend? This they have to know.

"Wow, that's amazing! When did this happen?" Jo says to Azumi.

Azumi opens her mouth to speak but Meg, the girl with the navel ring, beats her to it.

"It happened at the end of last semester around a month ago. We were following... uhhh... On our way home, we decided to pass the softball field, you know, to have our share of the eye candies."

"We were passing it by and suddenly their ball shot towards us and it almost hit Azumi!" Suzanne says, as usual determined to usurp Meg because she thinks Kōichi is hotter than Kōji. "Thank goodness it hit her bag instead, you know how _hard_ those _soft _balls are?"

"We all yelled, "Azumi! Are you ok?" We were fussing of course, coz we thought it hit her. And of course, we also wanted the boys to hear," said the matter-of-fact Anne.

"Well, it worked, coz as soon as he heard us yell Azumi's name, Takuya himself came running. He couldn't see her because Azumi's lovely blonde hair was all over her face. His face was all pale. But then, it got all right when Azumi corrected her hair and he saw her face." Melissa says.

"And then he said to her, like _totally _ignoring us, "What did they say your name is?" He said _they_ like we weren't even there!" Jodi exclaims.

"Azumi was barely able to speak. It was as if the ball had tumbled and got stuck in her throat instead." Kokoro says. "Then she was finally able to speak, and she squeaked like a mouse and said, "Azumi." And then Takuya's face broke into this _wonderful _smile and he looked at her and said..."

"You're perfect!" The girls except Azumi all said together, swooning and giggling.

Li looks at Azumi's sulky expression and back to the other girls. "So it was like love at first sight for him huh?"

"_Totally!_" Jodi says. "It was all so _romantic! _We then went through to the entire school and told like, practically _everyone _what happened_._"

_Well, it certainly looks like you've had a lot of practice telling and re-telling this tale. _Li thinks.

Jo turns to Azumi and says kindly, "Then what happened?"

But yet again, Azumi is spared from talking.

"Takuya called her that evening. It was like he couldn't even wait!" Meg says. "Azumi hadn't even given him his number."

"He obviously got it from any of our classmates," Suzanne snaps at her.

"Well, he called her and asked her out. Right then and there. He said how would she like to come to some stupid bowling party he was having with his friends that night. We knew the "friends" were the twins and those other hotties from Tsukuba. Azumi obviously said yes. She fancies him like everyone else." Anne says.

"Azumi had like, only three and a half hours to get ready! So she obviously called us. As soon as she said Takuya called her, we obviously ran to her home and helped her get ready for her big date. If it wasn't for us, she would totally have never gotten ready on time," Melissa says.

"I was first nervous that I'd be the only girl there," Azumi tried to speak but was as usual interrupted by the others.

"But she needn't have to be afraid at all. As usual, three of Kōichi's stalkers were also there. And so were the girlfriends of two of the others." Suzanne says.

_How ironic, calling the other girls stalkers when you all are practically the ring leaders of the term, _Li thinks.

"So all Azumi had to do was text us and we were there in less than fifteen minutes. We were already ready. We had all prettied ourselves before when we were getting Azumi ready. Thank goodness she did. We would _never _have forgiven her otherwise." Kokoro says.

"Well, her date went _perfectly._ Takuya is the _perfect _gentleman. Even though he had the stupid bowling game, he gave Azumi all the attention she needed."

"That's good," Jo says politely.

The girls excitedly blabbered on and on, continuing to talk about Takuya's hotness and complimenting his behaviour and envying Azumi's luck. None of them notice when Azumi quietly gets up and walks away to the water cooler. Jo and Li, however, do notice. They look at each other again, both thinking the same thing.

"It's been _really_ nice talking to you girls, but we've gotta go now," Li says exaggerating.

"Yeah, we've got to, ummm... Our other friends might be wondering where we are," Jo says.

"Awwwwwwwww..." The fan girls all moan disappointedly. After making them promise repeatedly to "not become strangers", they were finally able to excuse themselves from the horde and went after Azumi.

"What's wrong?" Li says coming up from behind her, causing her to jump. They can sympathise with the poor girl. She was barely able to speak a full sentence.

"Oh nothing, I just see no point in hanging around when my voice and opinions aren't even needed," she says disgustedly.

"Why do you hang out with them then?" Jo asks.

Azumi suddenly saddens. "Well, the thing is people only hang out with me coz I'm... You know... Takuya's girlfriend."

"Well then why bother? Why not hang with Takuya and his friends instead then?"

"Well..." Azumi hesitates, not wanting to tell them that whatever she had with Takuya was only on the surface.

In reality, he hadn't even laid a finger on her. Hadn't even kissed her yet, and it had been a whole month. It was like he just wanted to show her off or something, but then again, she only became popular when she officially became known as his girlfriend. She was just a normal girl going normally to school with her average beauty. It took a whole year for Takuya to even notice her. What did he _want _with her? She doesn't know but she would love to find out.

Jodi and the other girls would laugh themselves senseless if they knew her secret. Her newfound popularity would lie in tatters.

"I don't want to act all sticky and stalker-ish," she says casually instead. "I mean, I don't want to freak him out and drive him away or anything."

Jo and Li shrug. "Shit happens," Li says.

"Well, yeah," Azumi says getting encouraged, standing straight. "And his friends also tease him senseless, that's why Takuya doesn't even like to... you know... He's not at all fond of PDA even."

The girls raise their eyebrows, smirking. After teasing her some about things Takuya and her are most probably doing behind closed doors, they parted ways.

"I can see why she's no threat to Takuya's fanclub," Li says to Jo. "Who would know looking at Takuya that he even _has _a girlfriend?"

"Well, Takuya _having _a girlfriend comes as a surprise to me. He always acted like girls were dead to him. Out of all the guys he was probably the only one I can believe didn't talk dirty about us or his girlfriend, coz I just can't seem to remember him _ever _having a girl clinging onto his arm."

Li looks at Jo. "Oh, and Kōji also of course," Jo adds, understanding her look.

Li nods, satisfied. "You know, I get the feeling Azumi's really nice."

"Yup, and you saw how she casually handles everything thrown at her? The blonde hair, the name even. Guess who she reminded me of?" Jo says.

"Yeah I noticed that too. She really reminds me of..."

"Zoë," the girls finish together.


	5. A Look Inside

**Thank you Mickie15, Guest and Star-Maiden for your wonderful reviews! I hope you all continue to do so, so I know what you think of this story. And Guest, please leave your name or username next time, so I know who to thank!**

* * *

**A Look Inside**

* * *

**Day 4: Wednesday**

* * *

It's her fourth day of confinement. She knows that even before her eyes open to the world, which now consist of this single, almost barren room with a bathroom attached. A bathroom with a lock which was obviously taken out by someone and looked like it had just been cleaned hastily on the surface so that it can't be called dirty. She supposed it'd be alright for boys, who had astonishing tolerance for untidiness and can't tell a difference between something which is clean to which isn't _exactly _what you would call clean. And didn't notice details either, because for her, the bathroom was no less than stinky, and the toilet was a hole in the floor type; a squat toilet.

She had never used one of these before, even when she was in school, where she had learnt to control her bladder till she reached home to her normal old sitting toilet.

She had then regretted mistrusting the school toilets and turning her nose up to them. Firstly, she hated public toilets because she didn't like to imagine how many people went in daily to do their business. When she had woken up that day around Takuya's arms, she had tried to control it as best as she could. But she knew she couldn't control it forever, and Takuya had made it clear he wasn't releasing her. So shoving aside her ego and killing her pride, she had held her nose and closed her eyes, and used it for the first time. She thanked whatever gods were watching her that the flush worked properly.

She continues to lie on the makeshift bed in an awkward angle, not caring about her position as Takuya isn't around, no doubt in university. She thinks about the previous days of her confinement.

Yesterday, the third day and the fourth of her imprisonment by Takuya, she had gotten up, not surprised to find that she had been crying in her sleep. Her cheeks were rough from the tear tracks and a side of her pillow had left a sort of hard and rough dry mark a person makes when he or she drools on her pillow.

She had taken to doing that a lot lately. Unsure of what to do, she had learnt to pass her time by crying, so that then by the time Takuya comes back she's all dehydrated in the tears department and doesn't break down and cry in front of him. She does not want him to think that she's just a mess of waterworks. She thinks about her family and her friends and what they must be thinking and pain climbs the sides of her stomachs again.

She finally gets up and begins to fold the sheets and make the bed, taking as much time as possible. It didn't take long, as her bed is made out of two mattresses piled one over the other with plenty of sheets and pillows. She then starts sweeping the floor even though there is absolutely no need. Dust has little chances of gathering when the room is usually occupied by one person with the doors and windows shut tight.

All too soon, she has swept the entire room twice and even dusted the shelf and the tiny refrigerator in the corner of the room where some supplies are left. Yes, for some reason, there is electricity here in this miserable dope of a place. She had frowned at it first when she had seen it. The mini refrigerator was nothing special, but it was in working condition, so that according to Takuya she would have something to eat on the days he won't be able to come visit her. She was thankful for the electricity, as that meant that water came from the bathroom taps at intervals. She briefly wonders how Takuya had managed this feat. Maybe it would make sense when Takuya would actually let her know where she is confined.

At first she hadn't understood why Takuya had risked the light. What if anyone outside happened to see a lamplight or the flickering flames of candlelight burning? She had soon come to know that the shutters placed over the doors and windows cover any and all cracks, so nobody who happened to be going by outside this abandoned place will see anything.

She had also discovered that the shutters are soundproof. The second day of her confinement, when Takuya had left for his university, she had tried to scream. She had screamed till her voice broke out and she fell down, sobbing without noise, as her lungs had worn out and the weight of what was really going on and what she is going through had fallen down upon her.

She goes to the toilet now. A toothbrush and toothpaste are kept aside the sink with a half empty bottle of shampoo and a lump of soap along with a sponge. This was another thing new for her. She never used solid soap except in times of extreme emergencies. She used nothing on her face except face-wash and washed her hands with liquid soap and hand moisturiser. And when she showered or bathed, she used body lotion and moisturiser.

Another new discovery today is the fact that the shower is almost of no use, as only a few droplets fall when she turns the tap. She hadn't bathed for three days straight, coz she simply hadn't the mood. Now she thinks she had been stupid, as it is an excellent way for her to kill time. She decides she wants to clean the bathroom first, even though she had cleaned it just yesterday and she was the only person using it, so there really wasn't much use, but she kept on it anyway, cleaning everything, including the toilet area with the toilet cleanser she had asked Takuya to bring yesterday because a stinky toilet room has always been simply unbearable to her, causing her to only be comfortable in her own bathroom.

She gets ready to take her bath. Since the shower didn't work, she fills the bucket with water. There is a mug, kind of like a beach pail, with a long straight handle standing beside the bucket. She knows it is for her bath. She strips off her clothes and squats in front of the bucket. She decides she wants to wash her clothes first, and does that.

After she hung the wet clothes on the rack on the other side of the toilet, she grabs the mug by the handle, dips it into the bucket and takes it out, filled to the brim with water. Holding her breath, she lifts it over her head and turns it over. A little gasp escapes her lips as the cold water hits. She then repeats the process. She takes her time cleansing herself. She grabs the towel from the rack which has its paint peeling off and the metal rusting, just like the walls of this place. This place certainly looks like it hasn't been used for a _long _time.

She steadily gets up, drying herself. She flings her hair and wraps the towel around it, squeezing her hair. Her underwear is still a bit wet, but she puts it on anyway. Next time, she will wash it before going to sleep and leave it hanging on the rack so that when she will wake up the next morning, they will be dry.

She then walks out of the toilet to the shelf she had dusted previously. She pulls out a jersey and a pair of trousers. They're no doubt Takuya's. She had gone through the clothes on her first day here and discovered that Takuya's clothes fit her nicely, though they were all a little loose.

Grabbing the comb, she works on untangling her hair, carefully following one stroke after another. All too soon, she is done. She has no choice now but to lie back on her bed and continue the Sweet Valley High novel, which she does so resignedly. She is no fan of books – that's more of her other friends – but she did consent on reading any novel Mia said was "in", like Harry Potter, which always seems to be in. A sad smile plays across her lips. She's already thinking of her friends in the past tense.

She remembers her first crush back in Italy. She was nine years old. Back then, she was too young to understand what the feeling was she had felt when she had looked at him, except that it was a pang of admiration and longing she had no name for and a thirst for desire she could not grasp. She had never found out his name.

It is the same feeling she now feels for Takuya. She is old enough to understand what she wants now, but the feelings she feels for Takuya have no name. She hates him for doing this to her, for putting her in the mess she is in, for disbanding her from her friends and her family. Yet at the same time, she feels an ache in her heart, like a heavy weight which can't be lifted no matter how hard she tries to do so.

* * *

"Heads up, Takuya!"

Takuya jerks back into the present, and his lightning reflexes enable him to take a hard swing at the ball which a second later would've hit his head. Takuya is arrogant and confident enough to not wear any safety equipment during free play or even practice amongst friends.

Everyone gathered cheers as the ball cleanly makes a home run, evading the hands and gloves of the fielders. There is a reason why he is softball captain in the first place. Takuya likes the attention and the admirers this simple title grants him, as then people are less likely to suspect him on anything amiss, like kidnapping Zoë.

Takuya frowns again, thinking. He feels terrible about leaving her all alone in that place with nothing really to do. He would have to think something about it, something which won't be that much of a bother and something which will prevent Zoë from going insane with loneliness.

"Earth to Takuya!" Kōichi yells.

Takuya blinks again, wildly swinging. This time, he didn't hit the ball as high and Kōichi, springing by the balls of his feet was able to catch it.

Takuya shrugs, not caring, and gives the bat to the waiting batsman. He then signals Kōichi and Kōji to follow him as Takuya had no intention on staying on the field.

Kōichi nods and hands his glove to someone else, and Kōji takes off his helmet and does the same. Kōichi jogs to join him while Kōji, hands in his pockets, lazily swaggers, dragging his feet on the ground.

When they get near enough, Takuya turns and starts walking towards the canteen which is located in the courtyard, not even slightly amused at how the crowd parts for them, staring with similar looks of awe, making way. Even in this campus, they are as well known in it as in their own. Kōji and Kōichi join his strides on either side of him.

When they reach there, Takuya scans the tables and benches. He spots the Frontier girls minus Zoë of course, sitting on a corner one but directs his eyes away to a table near them where four boys are sitting with their lunches, two on either side of the benches across from each other. He makes his way towards that table and the twins follow. As soon as they reach, the boys glance up and roar in greeting, getting up and thumping each other on the back. The noise attracts everyone nearby, who try to stare at them without making it seem obvious. The girls however, ignore the commotion, pretending like nothing is happening.

"So, Takuya the unapproachable and his lackeys the Kō twins finally join us," JP jokes.

Shibayama Junpei, or just JP, is in his third year. He fancies himself as the joker of the group. He has brown hair and eyes, and a built of a young sumo wrestler, which is precisely what his father wants him to be, being one himself. But JP wants a degree on his hands at least, before pursuing professional sumo wrestling in case it didn't somehow work out.

Kōji and Kōichi do not like to be referred to as Takuya's "lackeys". Just because they are a trio _always _seen together does NOT mean they are Takuya's "sidekicks".

"In fact," Kōji mentions as Takuya remains standing and asks everyone if they want him to get anything to eat for them from the canteen, "I think Takuya as more of _my_ gofer. Look at the idiot, standing here just waiting to lick my feet."

Takuya laughs good naturedly with the others as he starts to walk to the canteen. "Ok, fine, if you really aren't eating anything, don't you dare touch my fries!"

"My point will be further proven when Takuya will grab a bowl of ramen for me anyways," Kōji informs the others.

"Where have you been anyway?" Zack asks.

Ivankov Zack, tall, lanky and lean with his dishwasher blonde hair leans back against the bench resting his elbow against the head of the backrest in his usual casual manner. His fiery brown eyes are not cloudy today, which means he hasn't doped recently. He's less of a talker, more of an observer.

"Playing softball obviously," Russell says, blowing a strand of hair away from his lips.

Dalton Russell loved to experiment with his hair. For quite a while, it has been his usual black with white blonde highlights, half sticking up and half falling over his right eye, probably because his girlfriend likes it best that way. Needless to say he was the hottest guy in the group. And, like all hot guys, he was taken. It was all everyone could do to stop him from coming up with the topic of his engagement every time of everyday. Russell and his soon to be fiancée Delilah had already decided the date for their formal engagement party.

"Aw man, why didn't you guys at least text to tell me?" Jason whines.

Brown hair and green eyes, Hart Jason was the typical stud whose dislike for girls wasn't understood at all by JP. He just prefers the company of boys more than girls. He is a first year also, like the girls but he was sorted into this main branch of Tsukuba, unlike them.

"It wasn't even a great game. Takuya had his head in cloud 9 most of the time," Kōichi assures him.

Jason nods, satisfied. Takuya returns and takes his seat.

"You aware you're sitting near the _girls_?" Takuya asks them.

"Yup," JP winks. "Pleasant surprise. They were bound to run into us sooner or later. But where's the great Zoë?"

The three boys shrug. "They almost told us that day," Takuya says. "But then Kōichi had to open his trap."

JP looks at him nastily. Kōichi cringes. "What?"

"You DON'T open your mouth, haven't you learnt that enough times? _Especially_ when you're _so _dumb enough to tell your gf about other girls you sleep with. And you're supposed to be the genius. Seriously?"

"But I never told, I've said this enough times. I still don't even know how she found out. _She _broke up with _me_," Kōichi adds, stealing a glance at Li. It is fortunate, for at the same time his twin looked down at his lap.

Sometimes, Kōji still wonders if he did the right thing about ratting out about his brother. Maybe if he had just kept his mouth shut, everyone would still be friends. He shudders to think about what would happen if Kōichi or the others ever find out the truth. He had kept quiet and let them believe whatever they had wanted to at the time of The Incident. Not that they talked about it much anymore, but he is sure that they no doubt talked about any sort of link relating to him behind his back. Everyone suspected him of having some sort of link, because he used to be much closer to Kōichi and Li as compared to the rest of them.

At the same time Kōichi is stealing a glance at his ex and Kōji is looking down, Takuya himself is surveying Kōji intently, without his notice. He hasn't given what Zoë had told him about _her_ side of The Incident much thought, but now he does so. He, like everyone, had already suspected that Kōji had played some sort of part in it, but maybe it is a bigger one than he thinks or gave him credit for. But he didn't really have any desire to tell the others this. To be doing so will be revealing to them that he had talked to Zoë. And the Voice didn't even care about them enough to want him to tell them anything anyway.

Respect for Kōji, however, flared a little because Kōji had respected someone Zoë cares about. You can't say that at all by looking at him that he respects _anyone_.

"I was really looking forward on making the great "Zoë" fall," JP is saying, a bit disappointed. "I don't know _why_ people think she is so unapproachable. Anyone with that piece of ass _never _is."

"Yeah JP, that's the hundred thousandth time this week you've said that," Jason says sardonically.

"Yeah, and none of us wanna keep hearing about that," Takuya snaps.

"Especially if the girl in question is a complete stand offish bitch," Jason says, thinking Takuya is of the same mind. Takuya clenches his fists but says nothing.

"We'll find out soon about her anyway. You can't expect people to stay shut up about someone like the great Zoë," JP says.

"Oh wow!" Russell says suddenly as one of the canteen workers bring a tray laden with bowls of ramen and begins to set them on the table in front of the newcomers. "I should totally invite them to my engagement party!"

When everyone looks at him questioningly, Russell gestures towards the girls with his chin. The expressions on the faces of the boys doesn't change.

"What?" Russell says defensively. "I'm just thinking it for old time's sake you know? I'll check if I have some cards on me."

Saying that, he dives into his bag and rummages in it. Everyone barely has a chance to exchange looks when he extricates five cards. He grabs the pen tucked behind his ear and writes down the full names of the girls from mere memory alone. He finishes writing "Orimoto Izumi and family" on the envelope of the last card and tucks the pen back behind his ear.

"I'll be back," he informs the table and gets up and walks towards them.

"Freak," Zack mutters, but leans back further in to observe the show like the others.

At the girl's table which is situated against a wall, Mia is leaning back against the wall with her feet up on the bench, working on her laptop. Li sits scribbling on her notebook and every once in a while stopping to stare, frowning at the script she is working on. Jo sits across from them, nose buried in an impossibly thick book about machines while Aqumi, bored, is playing with the food on her plate with her chopsticks with her elbows on the table. Aqumi is the one who sees Russell approach.

"Incoming," Aqumi says to alert them all, sitting up straight. Jo lifts her head from the book while Li and Mia do a 180 degree turn.

"Hey y'all," Russell says, smiling at them all. None of the girls smile back or reply to his greeting. His smile fades a little but he straightens it again, unsure how to proceed.

They take their time regarding him. They remember Dalton Russell of course; the pretty lifeguard always surrounded by a horde of girls, some of them pretending to have cramps from the water or claiming to need mouth to mouth resuscitation and others just buttering every inch of his fabulous skin.

"What do you want?" Aqumi finally speaks.

"Well," he shuffles his feet. "I kinda wanted to invite you all to my engagement ya know? It's Saturday after next. I hope you'll all come."

He hands them one each, which they all accept, expressions softening.

"You're getting married?" Jo and Mia both squeal. Jo did it in excitement and Mia in horror.

"Engaged as yet," Russell says, saying it like he really wants to get married instead.

"Still, why would anyone _do _that?" Mia inquires of him.

Russell curls his lips. "You've obviously never been in love," he tells her, and Mia can only scoff.

"With who?" Aqumi asks him.

"With the love of my life, Hopkins Delilah. I don't think you all know her, because we met after you people... uhhh... Anyways where's Zoë?" He asks, holding the card up and looking around the courtyard as if she might be hiding somewhere.

"She's not continuing," Jo tells him.

"Really? Why?"

"Her mother told us she went to Hong Kong for an internship."

"Ohh... Kudos for her. Anyway I think I'll just drop her card off at her house for her parents anyway. She still lives at the same place doesn't she?" he jokes.

When that doesn't get a reaction, he continues, "Well I hope y'all will come and not bail on me. It'll be like one of the _most_ happiest days of my life."

"We'll try our best to come Russell," says Li. This is the first time she's speaking. "But try not to really count on it too much k?"

"Yeeeah, guess I can understand that," he says, disappointed. He addresses Li now, the level of his voice dropping. "But I want it, you know, for old time's sake. Think of it as something you're doing for me and Delilah, and not for... you know... him."

Li inwardly flinches, but outward, she nods. "Sure Russell."

He grins widely and holds out his hand. After looking at it for a while and checking the other girls' expressions, all of whose were stating clearly to accept as this one is different from the others only because of the fact that he's committing himself to a girl at a young age, she holds out her hand and they shake. As if an unspeakable truce is spoken, everyone moves and take turns to shake his hand.

As Russell heads back, he hears Aqumi say, "I wish Zoë will mail us soon."

* * *

The boys look at the exchange with similar expressions of shock. JP openly had a gaping mouth.

"That sonofabitch did it," JP says in awe. "What is _with _this guy? He's like a walking bag of on-sale girl's clothing or something that every girl melts at the sight of! Try taking notes Kōichi."

Kōichi can only just shake his head. Kōji is having trouble hiding the glow of satisfaction and approval inside him which threatens to show.

Jason mutters, "Pathetic," and Zack watches Russell's steps with a surprisingly present mind uncommon for a doper.

Takuya had watched it all very interestedly as well. He is glad he has a story to tell Zoë which will make her happy. He can't wait to go back to her and tell her.

As Russell resumes his seat, everyone is looking at him.

"What?" he says.

"What was the last part you said, which melted the ice princess?" JP demands.

Russell just shrugs and eats his lunch.

"Just one line dude! You just said ONE line and they were stepping over each others' toes to get your autograph!" JP whines.

Russell laughs. "Dude, they're girls. They _like_ to see stuff like lifetime commitments and all because that's the kindo thing what every girl secretly want for themselves."

Takuya nods to himself and sees Kōichi looking around uneasily, in an expression resembling... _guilt?_

"That's freaky," JP declares.

"Dude, what's really freaky is that they were goddam talking to each other with their _eyes_," Russell confides.

Kōji looks at Kōichi and winks, clearly stating _I see nothing weird about that. _Kōichi nods in return, smiling back._  
_

After they get up to go their separate ways, Takuya catches Russell and makes him repeat everything from the beginning, listening in concern. Then putting an arm around his shoulders while walking, he asks how he and Delilah can stand time apart and make it bearable. Russell shrugs, saying he doesn't know, but what he does know is that time apart is painful, and that only the knowledge that they'll be having late night phone conversations is what gets him going throughout the day.

"Why don't you have a nice long chat with Azumi about it if it hurts you so?" Russell asks.

"Izumi," he corrects absent-mindedly.

Russell looks at him strangely. "What?"

Takuya suddenly realises what he has said, but he doesn't change his expression or posture. He sighs like a forlorn lover. "I'm thinking about how much I'm missing my Azumi," he says casually.

Russell smiles at him, believing he had misheard because Takuya had spoken so softly. Takuya almost never speaks about Azumi because he doesn't like to share his sensitivities, which Russell can very well understand. Russell is honoured by the fact that he had trusted him to speak of these things with, and he is determined to keep this talk with Takuya to himself.

Takuya reads Russell's expression easily in relief. This was an incredibly close shave. How can he have been so _stupid_? It's like he had himself marked a bullet hole to his temple. He has to be _extremely _careful. He is fully aware he is rocking a boat on extremely treacherous waters.

He concerns his mind on what Russell had heard about the girls all worrying about, some sort of contact from Izumi, specifically a mail. He has to work on that now, and he knows what to do.


	6. Homing A Situation

**Homing a Situation**

* * *

**Day 5: Thursday**

* * *

_~ Dearest Mamma and Pappa,_

_How much to write about? What and what to tell? I'm enjoying so much here it's hard to write down each and_ _every detail! I have absolutely NO time to breathe even! And they are making me work day in and day out till I have NO energy left but I love it! Every second of it. It's like I'm working fourteen hours and get to sleep for less than five. Don't expect me to be real regular in writing that's all I'm saying. You know how difficult it's for me to be even writing this right now? This mail has been stuck in my drafts all these days coz I write little and little as I get time. I know that when I left I said I would talk to you every second of everyday but it's just not possible! L_

_ Sorry times ten thousand! I mean it I swear! Don't hate me coz I love you both a lot and a lot and a lot and a lot and a lot! Ciao for now!_

_~ Your Zoë_

Mia and Jo finish reading the mail and look up smiling at Zoë's mother, who stands beside them.

Mia and Jo had volunteered to go with Russell to Zoë's house to invite Zoë's parents to his engagement. Surprisingly, Zoë's parents had recognised Russell, stating that Zoë used to talk about him and the others all the time. Zoë's dad had grabbed Russell in a man to man talk regarding marriage and family planning like his personal marriage therapist while Zoë's mother took Mia and Jo to their PC to show them Zoë's mail. Mia was quick to note that Zoë had not once mentioned her friends. Extremely unusual for Mia to not make a snide comment every once in a while about everything she had still kept quiet in front of Zoë's mother. Jo had apparently noticed nothing for she went right on chatting with her.

When they come back to the living room, Russell jumps at the sight of them, exclaiming that they have to leave now.

Once they are outside and Russell thanked them and parted ways, Mia finally turns to Jo.

"Zoë's all stuck with glamour in her new life isn't she?"

"Of course. I'd be too if I had gotten this kind of opportunity," Jo replies.

"I don't mean that. I mean her new life, where she's doing new things, meeting new people and no doubt making new friends."

Jo waits for her to get to the point. Mia stamps her foot angrily.

"Don't you get it? She doesn't care about us anymore!"

"Whatever the heaven is making you say that?" Jo asks.

"Oh I'll tell you what I mean. Was there even once, I repeat ONCE, a mention of any of US? Even a damn lousy "say hello to my friends" because I can't say so myself because I'm a Miss oh-so-much-busy-with-my-own-new-life pants?"

"Mia!" Jo says, shocked. Mia's face has turned red and she is breathing heavily.

They walk in silence for a while before Jo suddenly bursts out.

"There has to be a reason Mia! There _has _to be!"

But even to her own ears it feels like she is just trying to reassure her own self.

* * *

Aqumi isn't the type to forget something. She remembers how much Zoë and her family had cared for her and offered a hand back that time she was feeling so lonely.

_**Flashback:**_

Her memory stretches back to when she was ten years old, sitting on the swings with Himi Tomoki. They were enjoying together taking turns to launch the other in the air as high as they could.

But then as it started to get dark and the lights started coming on, Tommy's brother Yutaka came for him. Yutaka notices Aqumi watching them forlornly and offers to drop her off home as well.

There was no reason for Aqumi to be returning home immediately. Her chaperone was sitting a bit far on a bench, reading a newspaper. Aqumi didn't have parents waiting for her back home, or simply anyone. She feels a pang of loneliness and misery.

Placing a smile on her face like she has always been instructed to do since that age only, she graciously refuses his offer. What she really wanted to do was spend some more time with Tommy playing at the park, or go over his house to play a bit more till late, but she somehow doubted Yutaka would approve of either of those plans, so she just keeps quiet and watches them leave.

She was so busy staring at the retreating backs of Yutaka and Tommy that she started when Nana Morris comes and stands beside her, telling her gently that it was time to go home. She asks if Aqumi is hungry and Aqumi affirms.

They stop at a semi-fancy Italian restaurant to eat. Nanna Morris orders a steak with pasta for both of them. It arrives after a while, sizzling hot in its pan.

Again, as she has always been instructed to, she follows Nanna Morris's every move, which she was doing slowly so Aqumi has enough time to adjust. She grabs the fork with her right hand and the knife with her left. She digs the fork into the steak, cuts it with the knife and lifts a little piece. Blowing it softly, she takes it in her mouth, chewing softly in a timely rhythm. She is careful not to make any chewing noises and she makes sure her head is straight and she's not leaning too much in and that her elbows are tucked to her sides. Nanna Morris disapproves if she slops on the table and she had learnt never to displease her because then she did not get the little treats she's always giving her and which she previously used to take for granted. Like slipping a mug of delicious hot chocolate before bed as she's reading her a bed time story or an extra helping of onigiri.

To keep herself busy, she tried to concentrate on her meal, and not the clanking of knives and forks which seemed to be coming from everywhere. Just as she was beginning to think she would go crazy, another noise interrupted the constant banter of cutlery, the opening and closing of a door, and a sudden breeze which managed to escape for the little time the door stood open. Aqumi didn't even bother to look up until she heard a very familiar voice complaining about pizza. She gaped. It was Izumi, with her parents.

Nanna Morris also followed her gaze disapprovingly. Aqumi knew why. Izumi was being very unladylike groaning and massaging her stomach like that in public.

Izumi's father laughingly signalled for the waiter to come in and take their order while her mother joyfully took out the napkin she had tucked to her neck like in cartoons and placed it on her lap. She then warned jokingly she would get Izumi a bib the first chance she got as her father, done with placing their order, ruffled her hair, messing it all up.

Aqumi gazed in wonder at how... _Informal_ they were all being with one another. She looked at Nanna Morris. She loved her truly, but she would never dare joke with her like that. She said it wasn't polite and who knows if she started acting like that in front of her parent's company? What would people say about how immature the Watanabe girl is? It'd be bad for the family image. Aqumi had almost scoffed in front of her. Her father's company was only around when he was, which was close to never.

Izumi caught sight of her and began waving. Casting a sidelong glance to Nanna Morris, she lifted her hand slightly and hesitantly responded. Izumi jumped from her seat and ran to her, exclaiming how lucky it is she ran into her. Then looking moonily at Nanna Morris, asking permission that may Ai please sit with them? Aqumi looks up at her too, mimicking Izumi's expressions. Nanna just curls her lip and says sure. Exclaiming in delight, Izumi takes Aqumi's hand and drags her tottering to her table.

When Izumi's pizza arrives, she lightly prods it and takes a nibble with her fork. Getting used to the hot feeling in her mouth it was causing, she casts aside her knife and fork and grabs the slice with her hand and starts gobbling it, pulling all the dripping cheese in with her tongue. Aqumi looks wide eyed at her and glances at Nanna Morris to find her looking at them very disapprovingly.

Izumi then thrusts the slice she was eating into Aqumi's mouth, catching her completely by surprise. She kept glancing back and forth from her Nanna to Izumi, not knowing what to do, so she just took a small bite and chewed slowly.

Even Izumi's parents were making no attempts to be overly formal. Izumi's father for instance hadn't even touched his napkin yet. The whole thing made Aqumi feel... stupid. She laughs aloud, letting go of her guarded self. Izumi looks at her and laughed as well, thinking that she was laughing at all the cheese around her mouth.

When they were just about done, Aqumi begins to feel glum again. It was even beginning to get late, but Izumi exclaimed that she wanted to have some ice cream from a place nearby.

"Come with us Ai, it'll be a lot of fun!" she says.

Aqumi felt Izumi's parents gaze fall on her. They were both smiling, their expressions very welcoming. Aqumi felt a heavy presence weigh down in her chest.

"It's already getting too late..." Aqumi began to excuse. Izumi interrupts her.

"So what would be more awesome if you spend the night over?"

Aqumi didn't know what to say, torn. Nanna Morris had heard where the conversation was going and had come to stand beside them.

"We certainly don't want to burden you," Nanna Morris said. "And Aqumi doesn't even have her things. We should best be leaving now Ai."

Aqumi's mouth was clamped shut the entire time. She however, rose gracefully from the table and threw her head back to sweep her hair away from her face and make all the long strands fall behind her, a habit which was already becoming to be associated with her and would be done so more in the later years when to her friends it'd become totally natural on her.

Izumi whined. "Oh please Nanna Aunty? I'm an only child! I don't have anyone to play with all the time anyway." She couldn't really remember her name.

Nanna Morris's lip curled. Aqumi knew that to act informal was definitely not a way to earn any points with her.

She shakes her head, mustering a smile. "No dear, it's not really a right time. These things should be prepared in advance. Maybe later..."

"Nanna, I wanna go."

Aqumi surprised her own self along with her. They both looked each other in the guarded shocked way they had learned to do in public. She was quiet a few seconds before speaking, apparently not wanting to embarrass anyone by making a scene or chastising Aqumi in front of everyone. She followed the book of appropriate behaviour in public right down to the very last letter and punctuation mark.

"Well..." she forced herself to say the next few words, "I suppose... Only if you come back first thing in the morning because you have absolutely no preparation..."

She was cut off by Izumi's delighted squeal and Aqumi throwing herself at her Nanna and kissing her on the cheek.

"Thank you Nanna!" She exclaims, beaming.

Disapproval was still evident on her face. "Make sure you brush your teeth before sleeping, kame knows where you'll get a toothbrush at this time..."

"We won't be sleeping!" Izumi says, jumping excitedly.

"Oh, we'll see about that young lady!" Her mother challenged her, pulling Izumi back towards her by her ear. Izumi just giggled in response, like she was very used to this treatment.

"... and call me when you reach home and when you leave tomorrow, or perhaps I should be coming to pick you up..."

"No need for that ma'am, we have no trouble dropping Ai back... If we even decide to let go of her that is," Izumi's father says, smiling fondly at Aqumi. Aqumi felt a surge of emotions. These people were so... nice. Just like Izumi. She could easily tell Izumi's parents influence on her. They had done a good job in raising her to be nice and smart. The niceness trait had apparently been rubbed off on her from the time she had been in her mother's womb.

Nanna Morris looked understandably uncomfortable to Aqumi. But she was so happy that her next string of words weren't really registering as her mind was playing a game of hop scotch on its own.

Finally, they left the diner. Nanna Morris had convinced Izumi's parents to swing by Aqumi's house first so that she could pack a few essentials for her at the most. Aqumi knew better than to argue coz otherwise Nanna Morris won't be able to sleep a wink and Aqumi would not get cold sesame noodles for a week no matter how much she begs. And also, that way Aqumi can stay for a while later as well and not have to rush back even before breakfast.

Aqumi forgot the last time she had this much fun. After their ice cream, Izumi's parents drove around a bit admiring the city lights for the girls and they even bought a few mangas, rented a DVD to watch and a few snacks and drinks to have during the animated movie.

When they reached home, the girls showed no sign of sleepiness. Izumi took Aqumi's and her mother's hands and dragged them both to the kitchen to bake some cookies. When Aqumi pointed out that they _had_ bought cookies along with chips, Izumi decided to bake brownies instead. Her mother was both intrigued and exasperated at her passion for cooking.

It didn't take long. They marched back to the living room where Izumi's father had made a makeshift home theatre. In the future it will really be evolved into one as per Izumi's teenaged requirements.

Her father had fallen asleep sitting on the couch, his extinguished cigarette hanging limp from the side of his mouth. Izumi ran full speed and jumped on him with full force, causing him to wake up with a yelp and dropping the cigarette. Aqumi watched in wide eyed surprise. She remembered doing almost the same thing to her own father when she was little, savouring every moment when he was with her.

They watched the movie, munching on chips and biscuits and drinking more sodas. When the movie was finished, everyone retired to their respective rooms. Izumi and Aqumi did many things. After discussing the movie they had watched in great length, they had a drawing contest, played video games and pored over the mangas they bought. They lay on the bed and just talked till dawn, which was when they finally fell asleep, albeit accidently.

* * *

"No," Aqumi says flatly to Mia. Mia and Jo had met up with Li and her to bring them up to date on the latest from Zoë.

Aqumi's bond with Zoë had increased since that night she had spent over and they had begun to hang out more and more regularly when they were both feeling alone and the other members of their gang were busy in one way or the other. Aqumi could not begin to fathom the idea that Zoë of all people could be as rude as the way Mia was describing her to be.

Mia ignored her and went on with her tantrum. No one knew if Mia was really hurting or was just jealous by the way she kept ranting on and on.

Aqumi stayed quiet, listening to Mia with a barely conscious mind. Even though Zoë was extremely popular because of her niceness, some people still tended to think of her as an arrogant, self centred, proud bitch. That came, of course, from the people who were just jealous of her popularity and the love she extracted from so many people. If nobody hates you, you're doing something wrong. If there was such a thing as perfect, that was Zoë.

She felt sad. She felt no envy in wanting everyone to know Zoë the way she knew her, because then they will all see she is a precious person no one can even bear to think or hurting or forming malicious thoughts and evil desires about. But even she sometimes had stupid selfish thoughts like Mia, of wanting to keep Zoë all to herself and not even bear to think of anyone standing a possibility or a single chance of stealing Zoë away from her. It wasn't right. She can feel the pain.

_This possibly might have happened,_ Aqumi thought, resigned to think about it even though she tried her best not to. _Somebody might have stolen Zoë from us._

It was a strong possibility. She was just that kind of person. If Aqumi can think of stealing Zoë to keep her all to herself, she had no suspicions of someone else thinking along the same lines as her.


	7. Regina

**Many many thanks to Blazedoll for her help in getting this chapter done. It seriously wouldn't have without you bugging me every other day and even doing the home work for the draft of this chapter which I admit is the main reason I get so lazy all the time! XD Also thanks to everyone who took the time to review!**

* * *

**Regina**

* * *

**Day 6: Friday**

* * *

Zoë sits, depression soaking into her like water in a sponge. She has no sense of days and nights passing by anymore at all as it didn't matter one bit where she is at the moment as basically every moment of time is the same as the previous. Time doesn't matter either, except wondering of ways to kill it, and she was fast losing resolve in doing that either.

Now, as Zoë sits on the mattress of her bed holding the new book Takuya had brought her on his last visit, she feels everything apart from the likes of reading it. It is four p.m. Thank God for that, since the time here has always seemed to be on hold.

Zoë has started bathing daily after cleaning the room and washing the bathroom that day, and that had helped to spend the time and had kept her away from the thought of her friends and family and about everything she could be doing right now except for sitting in a godforsaken room. But now, it does not seem to be enough, because then she would have all the evening to mourn and sit idly while her persistent thoughts take her back to wondering what Aqumi, Li and all the others would be doing right now and everything she could be doing with them.

She has already eaten a slice of pizza that Takuya had brought yesterday after heating it in the tiny microwave that was here and placed in the far corner of the room besides the fridge. The room does have the basic necessities, but that isn't enough for Zoë the walking social network, who likes going out more than sitting in some place doing nothing.

Right now she is not hungry, nor in the mood for reading the book. So she just lay back down and wishes to just fall asleep which is also not happening either. Zoë starts to get pissed off. She has been feeling like this a lot lately and has also failed to calm herself every time she starts to.

She thinks about Aqumi_. _What will she be doing right now if she was in this situation?

She thinks about Li, then Jo and Mia and thought despairingly if they were missing her as much as she misses them.

_Do they care for me?_ Zoe shakes her head vigorously at that. Since when has her mind been forming such negative thoughts lately? _Of course_ her friends care for her! And her family loves her more than anything else.

_So why haven't they tried anything to save her though?_ asks a voice in her head. She starts to reason with herself that maybe Takuya had really hoodwinked them all and wasn't just bragging. That calms her down to some extent.

Now that she is starting to relax, she feels mentally drained. A lot of thinking also exhausts a person but she was still not yet sleepy so no matter how hard she tried to clear her mind and sleep, it was no use. Millions of thoughts are racing in her head.

About the millionth time, she again starts thinking about the times she has spent with her dear friends and family; the good times, the times before everything shattered and fell between the two groups of friends. Like that time when they hung out together in the park almost every day.

Once, they were having a 6 on 6 football match. Takuya, Zoë, Tommy, Russell, Jason and Aqumi were in one team, and Shinya, Li, Jo, Mia, Kōji and Kōichi in the other. She had scored the winning goal for her team by accidently on purpose tripping Mia so stealthily, the not very unbiased referee Zack had failed to notice because he was lying sprawled on the grass with his head resting back on his arms and one leg over the other chewing on a blade of grass. It was his way of saying that his comfort was more important to him than their match. The fuss and tantrum Mia had then thrown had made him scurry back to his post, scared out of his wits, while JP doubled up, laughing madly.

Without even realizing, Zoë had fallen asleep and the dream she had had is still fresh on her mind and she notices that she had started to cry at some point in her dream again. Her cheeks feel rough and stiff and so do the corners of her eyes. They burnt when she opens them and has to squint to prevent further tears from escaping down.

She got of the bed and went to the bathroom, where she stood in front of the cracked mirror and sees her reflection. She has bloodshot eyes, as expected, and bags under them. Who doesn't get them after crying as much as she has been doing lately and sleeping so much? She also has pallid skin, _so very_ unlike herself. She was nowhere as fresh as she had been before. She has lost weight, which was a surprise since all she has been doing here is eat, sit, read and sleep.

But overall she looks sick, how can Takuya not notice what this place is doing to her? When she had thrown a fit previously about how horrible she looks, Takuya had taken her hand in both of his, looked deep into her eyes, and told her she is an angel in disguise walking this planet and there was absolutely no one in this world more beautiful than her. She obviously doesn't believe him, but she could tell Takuya genuinely believes what he said.

She goes back to the room, eats the first thing that she picks from the fridge and sat on the bed again, this time picking up the novel and resolving to reading it. Sleeping again won't be possible so there is no reason in trying. She read the novel, and read it again and again till she fell asleep again out of sheer frustration.

* * *

**Day 7: Saturday**

* * *

The next day dawned over the 7th day of her confinement, and it was obviously no better than any of the previous days she has woken up to in this place. She makes herself get up and do the daily chores she has made up for herself like a machine and sits back on the bed again picking up the novel she now knew by heart and is quite certain she won't be able to read it.

Takuya had not come to meet her yesterday, maybe he won't come today either but she has often started waiting for him an actually looking forward to his visits. Because then she has a real person to talk to. She is however expectant today, even hopeful, as it is Saturday. She remembers him saying he'll stay the night again.

She knows that today is Saturday, almost a full week she has been confined, because she has added an extra procedure to her routine. With each day passing, she marks a black cross on the wall beside her bed with the permanent marker she had kept in her own bag when she had left her home for the last time.

Complaining is of no use but at least he listened to her quietly and replied, even if they were the words that told her this was good for her. She wanted to hear even that so that so her thoughts aren't the only things making sound here.

Takuya was under the delusion that he understood her, so maybe when she'd make herself _really _clear to him, he'd know what she really wants and let her free. After all he had promised to keep her happy and only what she wants can make her happy.

* * *

_**Flashback -**_

_Izumi's mom was sewing when she and Takuya entered her home. Their last class was cancelled, and Mia had only been glad to go out with Zack who had again decided to bunk the last period anyway. Izumi, not yet Zoë, was partly amazed he had honoured the school by even showing up as he usually didn't attend any class. And __Kō__ji and __Kō__ichi had just gone straight home because __Kō__ichi had started to get one of his infamous migraines in the third period and was not so steadily becoming worse. And this had left her and Takuya alone for a whole hour which seemed too much to wait for just to say good-bye to other friends in the group when they will be meeting again in a few hours. And Takuya instead of going back to his house had come with her._

_So now, they sat with Takuya absorbed in his Nintendo DS refusing to eat the ramen her mother had made and just looking utterly occupied with the Pokémon game which was his favourite at the time. Her mother left then to a neighbour's. _

_Izumi was fuming all the while. If that was all he wanted to do he could have done it sitting in his own home! And just after an half an hour he started whining for food and instead of eating ramen which had by then gotten cold, started begging Izumi to make him her special chocolate lasagna which she had brought to school a few days ago on Jo's insistence of trying something Italian. Everyone knew Izumi's mum is an Italian cooking whiz. Refusing Jo can be impossible sometimes and Takuya seemed to have inherited that specific trait at the moment._

_"Please! Please! Please! Pleeeaaassee!" Takuya was insisting._

_"No Takuya! It's my grandmamma's special recipe and Mamma has to be here to guide me through it. And serves you right for making the ramen my Mamma made you go cold. Just go microwave it from the kitchen."_

_"You like cooking so what is the problem? And I want to eat that special chocolate lasagna of yours. No one can match your cooking skills. And I'll help too!"_

_"Grrrr.."_

_"Yayyy! Let's get started. C'mon, Izumi!"_

_With that he literally dragged Izumi to the kitchen and after reaching it started looking at her expectantly. She took a deep breath. This was going nowhere and she dictated the necessary ingredients for Takuya to bring._

_Accepting Takuya's help -and in the kitchen- was probably a bad idea. Scratch that, it was probably the worst idea she's ever had her entire life. The guy couldn't even carry the ingredients to the kitchen counter without spilling a few things on the way, let alone help someone cook!_

_Till the time she had put the lasagna into the oven to be baked, she was exhausted beyond comparison. Not because preparing lasagna was a tough job but because Takuya had hindered her more than assisting her. He had not only dropped an egg on the kitchen floor but had also had spilled tomato sauce over the counter and on Izumi's shirt as well as his. And that had pissed her off more than anything else; it was one of her favorite shirts, the one she had bought from Fiction years ago but had loved so much that even when her mother had told her various times to throw it way, she had not done so. Now she guessed she had no choice to do so because it had a huge red stain over it which she doubted would be able to wash off._

_It was then that Izumi lost it and told Takuya to stand ten feet away from everything and just watch. He had done that too without complaining and watched. If she didn't know better, he was actually enjoying watching her. Now when the lasagna was in the oven, he suddenly became serious._

_"I am sorry, Izumi. I did not mean to upset you. I wanted to help and if not correctly I will do it afterwards after learning how to do it correctly and properly."_

_"Hey," she replies, surprised. "It's alright Takuya, it's just a shirt and I cleaned the counter so no big deal."_

_She smiled at his serious expression and shook her head._

"_I mean it, Izumi. I'll always help you. You can count on me. I will always be there for you."_

_He smiled after that but she could still see seriousness in his eyes, which was very unlike him. Before she could say anything about it, the timer rang on her cell which she had set out at that very moment and both their eyes turned to it. Takuya went to switch off the alarm and Izumi to the oven to take out the lasagna._

"_Well, your lasagna is ready, now eat that and stop bothering me."_

_She winked at him and he winked back._

"_I'll think about the latter", he said._

* * *

She smiles at that thought and lets out a laugh which is more of a huff as her voice catches halfway through her throat because of lack of use.

She is still lying on the bed when Takuya enters the room carrying a basket in his hand and looking rather pleased with himself. His has disillusioned himself into believing that Zoë's friends have fallen for the fake letter that he had sent and the gift he had brought for Zoë. His cocoa eyes fall on Zoë but seeing her sprawled over the bed unfocussed, his spirits somewhat dampen.

Shaking that feeling aside he closes the door with an audible click. That gets Zoë's attention, whose emerald eyes flick and come to rest on his, but there is sadness in them, and before Takuya could escape that look, she turns her back on him, pulls the covers completely over her and starts crying lightly. It stings Takuya's heart. He wants to make Zoë happy above everything else but of course protecting her is more important and he is sure that the gift he has brought her will make her happy. He sits beside her on the bed and placed the basket on his other side.

"Izumi… "

He hears her sniff. "Takuya… Do you care for me?"

Takuya blinks. Isn't that obvious? And is that not the reason he is protecting her?

"Of course, Izumi-chan. You are…" he starts to say but was cut short by Zoë's now slightly shrill voice.

"Then let me go! I can't live here. This place is killing me. I need my family, my friends, my life back! I can't live like this… Takuya. Please!"

Tears are streaming down her face as she says this and Takuya's heart clenches at the mention of his name and hurt behind Zoë's words. Before he could completely recover, Izumi starts again.

"Are you scared I'll tell people about this? I won't. I swear I won't. Just let me go! Let me go back home, please, back to my parents and…"

Her voice breaks and she starts crying in earnest, hiding her face behind her hands. Izumi's words and her breaking down in front of him almost broke his resolve and he desperately tries pulling himself together, berating himself.

_She doesn't understand. This is better for her. You must protect her._

The voices again, spelling out the truth, coming to talk to him like they do to keep him company. The Voice are the only ones which understand him completely without him needing to explain or say anything.

Before he can listen in on it further there is a soft ruffle from within the basket and at that sound he considerably lightens up and looks up at Zoë, taking out the little kitten he had brought for her.

The furry brown and white kitten had sparkling green eyes much like Zoë's and he knew that a partner with her, during the times he cannot come will distract her somewhat from the traitorous thoughts she seems to be having and keep her company.

He holds the kitten in his arms comfortably. Zoë's eyes twitch and it looks like she will start screaming again but he overrides her and says,

"I know how much you love kittens Izumi, and this one here is very tame and beautiful. Tommy's sister in-law's cat just had a new litter and I bought one for you. He would give you good company. Go ahead, touch it. You will love him."

He would have taken the kitten closer to her if he had not seen her knuckles whitening due to excessive force with which she holds the blanket.

After a second she threw it off herself and got off the bed and yells in a shrill voice,

"A cat is not what I want, Takuya. I want to go back home. A bloody cat is not going to make me happy!"

Takuya just stares at her wide-eyed; he has never seen Zoë scream like this nor has he ever heard her swear before. They just stare at each other for a long moment in silence before Takuya turns around and starts for the door, head bowed and basket in hand, the kitten mewling.

"I just thought… you know… that… will make you happy. I didn't mean to… I…"

He quits his pitiful attempts to complete a full sentence. He is shaken up by this unexpected outburst from her and he has never been able to make her understand the things which are simply not in his control.

Just as his hand touches the doorknob, she calls his name softly.

"Takuya."

He stops, then slowly turns around to gaze at her. They look at each other again, saying nothing. Time seemed to have come on hold.

During this time, Zoë fought with the conflicting feelings inside her which seemed to be gnawing her insides, so confused is she. Takuya doesn't say anything. He just stands there looking at her, waiting patiently for her to come up with a decision.

Zoë shakes her head just a little, as if jerking aside an irksome fly. She has no idea what the heck she is doing and the words which come out of her mouth next seems to be coming out of someone else entirely.

"Where do you think you are going with my cat?"

She walks over to him, not uttering a word. She stands there for a few more seconds, again with conflicting actions in her mind she can't decide which one to carry out. It is like one cruel game, where your choice decides your next step and one bad choice changes your entire ending.

"It is not a he, it's a she," she says softly in a painful voice, looking at the cat like a proud mother.

Takuya frowns lightly, looking at the cat and wondering how he could have been mistaken.

Her lips trembling and new tears forming in her eyes and voice shaking unbearably, she says, "I'm going to call her Regina."

Again jerking her head just a tiny fraction like before, she throws her arms out and hugs him tightly with the kitten between them and sobs.

The smile which lights up Takuya's face is like a thousand watts. Much elevated, he adjusts the kitten in one hand so it was not squeezed in between, holding Zoë tightly with his other.

He is now sure that Zoë will come around eventually and everything will be just fine. What she apparently has going on in her head will soon vanquish now that she has further company and she will also get used to the knowledge and the new life she has without her family or friends or anyone who will look at her with and evil eye and have malicious thoughts about. He frowns at that thought but then thinks that as now he has rid her of that and also hoodwinked everyone into believing that Zoë has left of her own free will, they will have their happy ending.

He smiles again at the thought thinking that Zoë is crying because she is beside herself from happiness at how far he has gone for her and at what he has done for her and pats her while she just cries harder.


End file.
